Page 1456 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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paradoxical, however, to see that funding for homelessness research has been cancelled, just as the federal government calls for more review and evaluation of programs.
I can only hope that the Minister for Social Services is genuine in his desire to consult states and territories over the next few months and that the potentially disastrous Commission of Audit recommendations regarding the cessation of all specific purpose funding in favour of bulk commonwealth rental assistance payments does not reappear.
In the space of legal services and human rights, I would like to make a few remarks. The budget cuts $15 million from legal aid over the next four years. The government’s mid-year budget update already cut $43.1 million over four years to legal policy reform and advocacy funding. This is another way to hurt the most vulnerable people in our society, like migrants who, ultimately, will end up representing themselves without assistance. Not only does this lead to injustice to those who cannot afford it but it is ultimately a false economy as court time is wasted and unsatisfactory verdicts are appealed.
This is complemented by cuts to the Environmental Defender’s offices which basically put Australia’s EDOs at risk of closure, especially smaller offices like the one in the ACT. This is an incredibly valuable service.
The federal government has also cut funding for the Human Rights Commission and, not surprisingly, it has cut the number of human rights commissioners who help educate Australians on human rights and hear complaints on issues such as racial discrimination and vilification. This, of course, comes at the same time as the federal Attorney-General has declared that people have a right to be bigots and moves to repeal long-held racial vilification protections.
I would like to speak briefly about climate change because the federal budget confirms that the Abbott government almost does not even care to hide the fact that they are opposed to action on climate change. It is an embarrassment to see what they are funding in direct action. The funds allocated might give them about $6 a tonne of carbon to just reach the five per cent target they have, a ridiculously low national target that, regrettably, they share with their federal ALP colleagues.
Of course, the biggest embarrassment here is that they are ripping up the price on carbon, a world-leading legislative scheme that is already in operation. It is embarrassing that they are going back to this model of operation, government grants to solve a systemic problem, rather than using an infrastructure that has been created to address it in a systemic way.
They are not just beating up on the renewable energy sector in the usual way of federal governments, with fluctuating policy settings, uncertainty, changing the rules. No, they are going even further and cutting the heart out of support. Hand in hand with a cynical agenda around the renewable energy target, the renewable energy sector has a right to be hostile to this government’s agenda.
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